Military life in Auckland and being a cripple in Taupo

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Well I'm sitting here wondering whether I'll ever walk again. We just did this "day walk" which involved climbing a volcano after a 4am start. My knees went about halfway through the descent, so I just had to do a very sporty high speed hobble, inlcuding falling flat on my face at one point and being carried in a very fetching fireman's lift position down some of the slopes. I'm such an action girl!
Anyway, Auckland was great, not least because Jeff who I did the flying scholarship with 10 years ago put me up in his naval base. It took a bit of time to readapt myself to military life - but the sight of young men doing drill outside my room at 8am every day certainly helped. Got to go on Jeff's warship, but he wouldn't let me touch anything or fire the guns. Booo. It was cool anyway though.
We've borrowed one of Jeff's friends cars and been burning it round the North island seeing stuff for the last few days. Highlights included climbing a (much smaller) volcano in Auckland, going to the bay of islands and then doing the road trip to Taupo. As the journey progressed we have converted ourselves from sailors to surfers (we gave up wearing shoes somewhere between Auckland and Taupo) - who needs shoes anyway! And then we made the progression to hardened conquerors of volcanos.
The preparation for today was long and hard. Jeff had booked a deluxe navy 8 bedroom house thing, which I very much enjoyed putting my scummy backpackers clothes into. But unfortunately for him he had only booked it for one night and this was the night I had decided we were getting up at 4am to do this "Tongariro crossing hike". So we had to check out of the nice accommodation with our backpacks at 5am and head to this area - it's Mordor in Lord of the rings. I had Jeff clmibing the devils steps under Mount Doom in the freezinf cold weather at 7am this morning. I thought it was all very hilarious - the volcano was very cool. Steam everywhere and it kept rumbing. (see photos). Anyway, the descent was a lot less fun and I had to hobble downhill for about 3 hours like a total cripple. Then Jeff thought it was hilarious - especially on the bits where he had to carry both me and my backpack. Oh dear - leaving my knee support in Sydney was such an error.
Anyway, last couple of days on North island now. Might try to squeeze in a skydive tomorrow (don't tell my parents or my knee surgeon!). Then I'm going to say goodbye to Jeff and head to South island to be a real backpacker again. I will be travelliong in a backpackers bus, or as the kiwis call the a "f*ck truck". I've tried to get one that caters for "active people" and doesn't look like a cluib 18=30 holiday. Who knows what it will be like. Anyway I will report from the South island.
Hope everyone's well. The working groups sign sends its regards and says it's never coming back to Brussels (see photo).
Thanks for the messages too - sorry I haven't replied to all of them, but it's manic trying to do all the activities here!

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Photos

working group sign on tour
Working group sign chilling on dashboard. Feet belong to driver?